RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Competing in the largest field of the season that included a dozen NCAA Division I schools on Saturday, the Concordia University Irvine men's and women's cross country teams proved they can hold their own in multiple races.

The circumstances also appeared to push a ton of Eagles to turn in their best times of the entire season - and - the best team times for both the men and women in Concordia's NCAA DII era.
 
Fresh off a career outing where she finished second overall out of 100+ runners at the San Francisco Invitational, Jori Paradis improved her time in the 6k race by a whopping 36 seconds!

Leading the Green and Gold in the Women's Invite, Paradis placed inside the Top 30 among collegiate runners, which was impressive since there were nearly twice as many runners as last week's meet.

Freshmen teammates Porshe Eismann and Madison Templeman also shaved off more than 30 seconds from the previous week.  Eismann ducked under the 22-minute mark for the first time in a collegiate 6K and Templeman improved her time by an eye-popping 44 seconds compared to the previous week.

Angelique Antonini and Maddie Jahshan followed suit with both getting under 23 minutes of race time for the first time in their careers.  Antonini sliced off 47 seconds from her last time out and Jahshan improved by 35 seconds.  Hannah Faust and Alana Hurley rounded out the top seven for the Eagles with the same formula – getting under that 23-minute mark and crossing the finish line with their best times of the year.

"On the women's side, the team all ran their best races of the year," explained Bloomfield.  "Porshe Eismann broke out along with freshman Madison Templeman.  I thought Alana Hurley ran well too. Jori led us again and just keeps looking stronger and stronger."

In the Women's 5k Open, the Eagles were led by Hayley Killion and Adriana Gil who both completed the course within 19 minutes.  Katelyn Wilson and Madilyn Herrera joined them in the Top 50 across the line.

On the men's side, Angel Aguirre led the charge by clocking his fastest time of the season for the second straight week in the Men's 8k Invite.  He knocked off nearly 30 seconds from his previous race and was the first Eagle to cross the finish line.

Jason St. Pierre was next for CUI, and along with upperclassmen Hector Arteaga, Jacob Dunagin and Joshua Scheetz, that entire quartet improved and posted times under the 26-minute mark. The largest improvement came from St. Pierre, who was almost 50 seconds faster than his last time out.

In the Men's 8k Open, CUI was led by David Berardi who continued the theme by knocking off about 25 seconds from his previous best. Colin Bervig hit his stride and was the second-fastest among the Eagles squad in this race, followed by Jose Munguia Zaragoza, Isaiah Duport, and Dustin Berger.  Miguel Ayala and Owen Beam joined their teammates inside the Top 50. 

"For the men, Angel Aguirre had another solid showing," added Bloomfield. "Hector bounced back nicely from a tough break last week. Jason St. Pierre may have had the race of the day putting in a great performance and Jacob Dunagin showed up strong again, I was impressed with our men's open group of Isaiah, Jose, David Berardi, Colin Bervig, and Dustin Berger. "They just executed and worked hard."

CLICK HERE for the full CUI cross country schedule.